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One of the best business sims around!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 22 / 22
Date: December 25, 1999
Author: Amazon User

If you like making money and a good challenge, this is the game for you. Laying track, building stations, and buying train engines is just the beginning of this complex game. You have to make decisions on where to lay track, which towns to service, and (in the scenerios provided) what is the best way to complete each scenerio. For scenerios, you are given at least 10 different maps to choose from, each with a different scenerio to complete and each with different computer opponents. In addition to trying to complete the requirements of each scenerio, you have to make decisions that keep your investors happy (or they will cut your salary) as well as personal financial decisions (or where to invest that salary) which gives the game a very "real-life" feel. To add to the "real-life" feel, the game can be played on-line or over a network with a group of your buddies which makes it even more fun. Overall, it is a great game which has incrediable graphics (trains, stations, towns, and landscape are drawn beautifully), a good manual, and is highly addictive. Actually, that is my only warning - if you like business simulation games like Rollercoaster Tycoon or previous versions of Railroad Tycoon - expect to spend several hours playing this game.

Great enhancements but also big omissions from the original

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 22 / 23
Date: December 03, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I browsed through the reviews by other players, and I am surprised that noone mentioned the original Railroad Tycoon, one of my all-time favorite games. My guess is that most people are too young here to have played it. For those who did, I think a comparison to the original would be in order.

First, I should say, I loved Railroad Tycoon 2. Railroad building is probably the most fun among the building games, I think because you not only build, but run your empire as well. RR2 is a good game on its own, and it builds on the strengths of the original and gives great enhancements.

GREAT IMPROVEMENTS over the original are obviously the graphics... since about 10 years has passed, this was a must. The addition of scenarios, is great, and provides not only loads of fun, but knowledge about the history of trains over the world as well. The addition of the stock market brings a new dimension to the game that is fun, however I found that sometimes it got in the way of railroad building fun, requiring too much attention to finances with too little control. I also liked the building of tracks with one click a lot; although an "undo" feature is greatly missing - the easy building also means it is easy to make a mistake, and often a costly one. My recommendation is to save before every major track building effort.

DISAPPOINTING OMISSIONS from the original include the often mentioned tunnel building, but my biggest disappointment was the less operational control over your trains. That really manifests itself when you already have a big railroad network, and your trains keep waiting on each other, because they are all using the same track, and you have no way to route them on an alternate track. Therefore I greatly miss the feature where you can tell a train to go through a station but not stop there, and the signals; both can be a great help in avoiding the crowding of trains. Another disappointment was the interface; although it is OK, and a lot of the immaturities of the original have been cleaned up, but it still follows the layout of the original that is largely menu-driven. The added-on financial market interface is rather tedious and unintuitive.

All in all, this is a very good game, greatly because it follows closely the original, and updates it to the new game standards. This game is great for everyone, but if you have played the original, you will wonder why PopTop omitted some great features that could have made this game so much better.

A great strategy sim.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: June 11, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This is one of the better strategy sims I've ever played. It combines resource management, building, interesting history, interesting railroading facts, good gameplay, and an intutive interface. If I had kids, I would buy this for them even if they didn't ask for it.

And on top of all that, its like having a giant railroad set on your computer where you can play on in real terrain (based roughly on real topological maps) at different points in history. Some people are bothered by the tweaked timeline, but they obviously haven't programmed sim games or thought through the implications of making it completely realistic. I think they have done an excellent job of balancing gameplay and I'm looking forward to anything else these guys put out.

I've put this away a few times, but often come back to it or the Second Century edition.

The awesomest game ever

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 8
Date: April 19, 2001
Author: Amazon User

The strength of this game is displayed by how it is not available anywhere in the market as it is completely sold out!

If you like simcity, you will like this better. If you are a railroad freak, then this is a must!!!

Can play this game 100 million times and it still feels you are playing for the first time...Higly recommended!

Awsome!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: July 26, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Railroad Tycoon II Gold is one of the best ALL TIME VIDEO GAME experiences for the more adult consumer. Super graphics/sound and the sophisticated gameplay will really test your management skills. Build, maintain, and manage your own railroad empire. Cutthroat competition and a great stock market interface adds to the challenge and fun. This game could easily be used as a primary university teaching aid for general economics, capitalism, business management, investment theory, industrial engineering, and even history. Fantastic!

The most addictive game ever

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: September 11, 2001
Author: Amazon User

If you like trains, there is no way you shouldn't buy this game.
BEWARE: This game is known to cause sleepless nights...

RailRoad Tycoon

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: September 27, 2001
Author: Amazon User

A great game with with good graphics. Pick any city in the world to start with! Also some made-up maps. You can make your own maps by using the map editor.

A great challenge and lots of fun

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: November 28, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Railroad Tycoon II is a great strategy game that requires critical thinking and lots of patience. If you possess both of these then RT2 is the game for you. In RT2 you are put in the seat of the chairman of a large railroad corporation, and you must expand your railroad across America, all the while maintaining a constant stream of revenue and profits. This entails starting profitable routes such as taking passengers & mail to various towns that demand them, and taking resources to industries that require them. For example, you would take coal and iron to a steel mill for it to produce steel, and then steel and grain to produce goods at a cannery. Establishing and maintaining these routes, and keeping them profitable at the same time, is a great challenge and requires constant micromanagement of train consists and the demands of your individual trains, such as their needing oil, sand or water.

It may sound technical, but RT2 is loads of fun. It's a great feeling to see your railroad start small, and gradually expand across America. You've got to run the game at a slow speed because there's so much to manage all at once, and so this expansion obviously happens quite gradually. But it's tremendously rewarding. Added to which, you must manage your own personal finances on the stockmarket. This feature detracts a little from the railroad side of things, but the two are interlinked in that if you run your railroad well, the price of your stock skyrockets. Concomitant with the stockmarket is the state of the economy: it follows a cycle that influences your company's profits, aggregate demand in the economy, and hence your price of stocks. You've got to factor all of this in when managing your personal wealth, and so you must buy low, sell high, issue stock at the right time, issue bonds, and raise or lower dividends depending on boom or recession. It's quite a complex procedure but, if you do it right, you can see your personal wealth skyrocket. Added to which, certain missions are won by you actually attaining a threshold of wealth, and not by expanding your railroad from one town to another.

So ultimately, Railroad Tycoon 2 is a tremendously diverse and richly rewarding game. The presence of the stockmarket feature adds extra depth to what is already quite a complex game, and so it's suitable for critical thinkers and problem solvers. The hard difficulty provides a huge challenge (which I am currently undertaking), and the easy difficulty is challenging enough for novices. As a result, RT2 is suitable for anyone really, as long as you've got the patience to sit down and learn how to play it in the first place. One thing's for sure: it's well worth it.

Jamie

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: August 19, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I can't say it any better then ... did, but I will say if you haven't bought it yet go out right now. IT'S THE BEST GAME EVER!

RailRoad Tycoon

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: September 27, 2001
Author: Amazon User

A great game with with good graphics. Pick any city in the world to start with! Also some made-up maps. You can make your own maps by using the map editor.

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